Targets Revised Down Already!

I think on reflection I was being a bit ambitious with the amount of figures I am going to paint , so the previous post is not set in stone!  I cannot see myself painting that many Redcoats ....but you never know.

I spent today working on the bases of my Zulus , I currently have 50 that just need the bases finished and shields, about 50 need a few bits of detailing and bases and shields and about 100 which are cleaned , undercoated and given a all over basecoat.Im hoping by next weekend to get the first 50 finished when I shall post some pics.I actually started these back in the autumn  so dont think Ive done this in the last couple of weeks! I have developed a speed method (well speedy for me) to paint the Zulus as I am keen to paint lots and get them on a table next year. I also have approx 50 24th foot half painted.

In a future post I shall consider the miniatures Im using in more detail but my Zulus will be a eclectric mix of the following ranges- New Foundry, Old Foundry, Rapier, Empress, Old Glory , Black Tree Design , Redoubt, Baker Company,Steve Barber Models and Wargames Factory. My unfortunate collecting habit makes me buy figures from different manufacturers even though I know they should not really be used together due to differences in size and style and I have got figures from all of the above and I even bought a few from Irregular, Minifigs and Hinchcliffe for the sake of completeness.

Till next time

Anglo Zulu War Targets

Here, for all the world to see , or at least anyone that reads this, I will set out my minimum requirement for the Zulu War project I have commecnced.
The project is twofold really , firstly to complete all the miniatures and terrain required to reenact a campaign based on this book by Roy Jones and Mark Fastoso.



This book is produced by Skirmish Campaigns http://www.milminusa.com/skirmcamp/scmain.htm#cc , I have the Abyssinia book and the Tanga 1914 elite campaign and found them really useful. The Zulu war contaigns 11 scenarios form the start f the conflict hrough to  the final defeat of the Zulus at Ulundi. The rules suggested are the Sword and the Flamewhich I  own a copy of , with some modifications of which the most significant is 8 man units for infantry.

The miniatures required to complete the scenarios are as follows.

BRITISH INFANTRY

48x24th Foot , 40x3rd Foot , 8xRoyal Engineers, 8xNaval Brigade, 64x80th Light Infantry, 32x90th Light Infantry,16x60th Rifles,32x13th Light infantry  , 16x91st Highland Infantry ,32xNatal Native Contingent , 16xSwazi Allies and 13 characters.

I do not envisage doing all the Light Infantry units as 80th LI can stand in for the others. This leaves a total of 261 infantry.Blimey!

BRITISH CAVALRY

15x17th Lancers, 6x1st Dragoon Guards, 6xMounted Infantry, 6x Natal Mounted Police, 6 x Colonial Volunteers, 6xNatal Light Horse, 8xBakers Horse, 8x Border Horse, 8 x Transvaal Rangers, 8 xNatal Native Horse, 8x Frontier Light horse, 6xRaafs Transvaal Rangers and 4 mounted characters.

I have not yet worked out where I can double up on units, there must be some although a couple of the scenarios require mainly cavary units.So at the moment the target is 96 mounted, double blimey!

BRITISH ARTILLERY/GUNS/WAGONS

4 x 7lb RA guns with 3 crew, 3 x 9lb RA guns with 3 crew, 1 x RN Gatling gun with 3 crew and 1 x RN rocket tube with 3 crew, 5 Wagons.

ZULUS

49 with muskets , 140 with hand weapons, 16 with rifles and 6 mounted.

TERRAIN

A 6 x 4 terrain board, Rorkes Drift Buildings , Zulus Huts.

I built a 8 x 4 terrain board about 4 or 5 years ago to go with my sons Christmas present of Warhammer Fantasy Battles which I had painted for him, it was meant to represent Skull Pass and although I was happy how the figures came out and I made a few errors with the board which is split into 4 x 2 ft sections. I think I can quite easily use adapt this to use for this project , however it will need some surgery to it, I will also need a extra 4 x 2 section. I will post pics of this when I am working on it.

I purchased a damaged Rorkes Drift set from Redoubt Enteprises at the Warfare show at Reading , here is a link to the item http://www.redoubtenterprises.com/shop/?page=shop/flypage&product_id=1355&category_id=40dc45d55f84bfb2a599af2e28a41e36

The roof of the hospital was split in 2 and some floors had broken off, I havenow repaired the damaged parts by pinning and glueingthe rooof and floors using a two part epoxy glue,it seems to have come out ok.

In front you can see some not yet completed Zulu huts , I have about 10 now plus a few other bits and pieces to form a Kraal (Zulu settlement) again I will post more info when I am working on them.

Here are the barricades which came with the set, I dont think theres enough for the board Im planning and I will ahve to order some more.

At the back is the toilet, kitchen, oven and the redoubt.

The second part of the project is to paint the defenders of Rorkes Drift on a ratio of 1 to 1 , and to name each of them! Most of these will already have been painted for the campaign , but will probably require an extra 40 miniatures.

So, thats a brief summary of my target for this year, whether I complete it im not too sure, it would be achievable if I didnt paint anything else, but I do intend to carry on with my VSF forces.

Next post will be about the miniatures Im using for the forces.

Anglo Zulu War Project

I have had a hankering to do the Zulu War for many years, and now I have commenced the project .To be honest I first bought some miniatures for this period about 5 years ago at a bring and buy where I got a pretty good deal on some of the old foundry range of Brits and Zulus . Last summer I started buying Zulus and reading up on the period and since then have been accumulating more and more .
I have set myself a target of completing the project by this Sunday of next year , 22nd January 2012 , which will be the anniversary of the actions at Rorkes Drift and the battle preceding it, Isandlwana.
More details to follow shortly.